Late Minoan Warrior-Graves from Ayios Ioannis and the New Hospital Site at Knossos

These five tombs, discovered by chance during the last two years, have an importance out of all proportion to their size and the wealth of their contents. They comprise (see Map, Fig. 1) (1) at Ayios Ioannis, a solitary ‘shaft-grave’ with bronze weapons of early Late Minoan type, but no vases; and (...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual of the British School at Athens 1952-11, Vol.47 (47), p.243-277
Main Authors: Hood, M. S. F., de Jong, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amphorae
Bronze age
Goblets
Helmets
Palaces
Rivets
Swords
Tombs
Vases
Weapons
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Summary:These five tombs, discovered by chance during the last two years, have an importance out of all proportion to their size and the wealth of their contents. They comprise (see Map, Fig. 1) (1) at Ayios Ioannis, a solitary ‘shaft-grave’ with bronze weapons of early Late Minoan type, but no vases; and (2) on the site of the new Hospital, a group of four tombs (three ‘chamber-tombs’ and a ‘shaft-grave’) containing bronze weapons, together with Late Minoan II vases which provide much fresh information about the pottery of the period. None of the five tombs had held more than one, or at the most two, bodies: that at Ayios Ioannis, and all except Tomb I on the Hospital site, evidently belonged to warriors buried with their arms. The bronze helmet from Tomb V (see p. 256 and Plates 50–52) is not only the first of the Bronze Age from Crete, but the only one of its type from the Aegean; and it has important bearings upon the origins of early metal helmets in the rest of Europe to the west and north.
ISSN:0068-2454
2045-2403
DOI:10.1017/S0068245400012375